How Circle’s institutional Arc blockchain got taken over by memecoins on day one
Circle blockchain Arc's first day was dominated by memecoins, and the traders behind them had already moved on by Thursday morning.
Circle's CRCL$82.87·Market Closed Arc blockchain went live Wednesday with BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard and DTCC among 11 founding validators, and CEO Jeremy Allaire calling it the most significant launch in the company's history since USDC itself.
The chain processed 7.83 million transactions in its first 24 hours, but almost none of it was payments. Lifetime USDC transfers stand at about 624,000, according to Arc's Blockscout explorer. Some 400,000 new accounts appeared in a day, and more than 73,000 contracts were deployed. Average fees quadrupled, to three cents.
"Arc is one day old, and every coin is already down like 50-80%," trader wale.moca posted on X. Asked whether it might recover, he replied: "It's cooked." Another user called it a one-day arc.
Day-one DEX volume on Arc finished at around $82 million, compared with the $878 million Robinhood Chain did on July 12, when its own institutional pitch was overtaken by memecoins and a cat token briefly hit a $156 million market cap. Arc's largest token, ARGUS, is worth $16 million. Its second- and third-largest are cirBTC and EURC — Circle's own products.